Card of the Day - 2014 Topps Tribute : Ryan Braun Tribute to the Pastime Base Autograph (18/99)

I finally reacquired a reacquired autograph.

I originally had a Ryan Braun signed baseball but sold that off and then used those funds to land me a great Allen and Ginter autograph which also happened to be a 1 of 10 red ink variant for the cost of the ball. A great trade off in my opinion at the time. I never planned to get rid of that card but then I ended up doing a trade for some very limited Kershaw cards which I couldn't resist. My thinking (with input from fellow bloggers as well) was that though the red ink is indeed unique and limited it wasn't a necessity to be attached to it if I could acquire cards that are my personal collection which Braun is not a part of. I did the trade and Ryan promptly went back on my to be reacquired list. It took a little longer than I thought it would take but I finally landed me another autograph of the Brewer slugger.

Now that I wasn't looking for a limited and rare autograph of Ryan I could just focus on getting an autograph at a deal. Few months went by as I was really trying to cheap out on the cost and kept losing out on auctions but this particular copy went up for sale on eBay with a penny starting price and I put it on my watch list. Card books for a high of $25 and a low of $10. $10 ish was my ceiling as I thought that was reasonable. Well at the end of the day I only had to fork over $8.18. A steal in my eyes.

Well once again Ryan is represented in my autograph collection and hopefully I won't have to go searching again for him. Welcome back Mr.Fake 2011 MVP.

18 / 99

Thank you for reading and have a blessed day.

-Penguin

BGS Submission Update Three - 2012 Allen and Ginter : Ryan Braun Mini Framed Red Ink Variant Autograph ( 9/10 ) Now Graded and Slabbed a Mint 9.0

Usually when I come to the mid way point of a BGS submission result week I am showing off some type of gem mint card but that is not the case this week but unlike those other weeks I expected this card to receive a mint 9.0 grade and that is exactly what it received though the sub grades were interesting.

From the past history on the Yu Allen Ginter card I could tell this was not going to receive a 9.5 on centering and surprise surprise it didn't. Expected a 9 and it received just that. I thought it might have an outside chance of an overall gem mint grade but wouldn't be shocked if it didn't. Well  edges and corners both got a 9.5 and only needed surface to get a 9.5 to get an overall 9.5. It didn't happen as it received an 8.5. Pretty low and unexpected but it did keep the overall at 9.0 so no harm no foul.

As expected the autograph grade received a 10 and coupled with the overall 9 grade I am happy with the results. Now let's see some gem mints.

5 Cards Submitted To Beckett Grading Submissions (BGS) At Frank and Sons On June 7, 2014

This past Saturday I went to Frank and Sons and picked up the five cards I dropped off two weeks ago to get graded. Those are being individually discussed in their own posts this week so take a gander if you like. With those five in hand I still had seven more that at some time I wanted to get graded. Well, why not submit five of the seven which gives me a reason to return to Frank and Sons in two weeks. Well here are the five I decided to submit and my thoughts on the chances of them receiving a gem mint grade or not.

First up is this red ink variant of Ryan Braun from the 2012 Allen Ginter set. With only 10 in existence I wanted it encased with hopefully accompanied with gem mint grade. I am being realistic though. With Yu's grade coming back with a mint 9 grade and Braun here being from the same set and I can see that it is a tad off centered I will be happy as long as it gets a mint 9 grade BUT as with Yu's autograph I do not see anything wrong with Braun's here so hopefully I get a 10 on that. There is one corner that seems to round just a tad but still think a mint 9 is within reason. We shall see.

Next up is our very own Dodger, Clayton. This is the one card of the batch that is not really an investment piece nor a rookie card or all that rare. I just for some reason wanted to have it slabbed with hopefully a good grade. Looking over it I expect the very least that it will be a mint 9. The only thing that might hold it back is that on the lower right side the edge frays ever so slightly. Corners are sharp, centered nicely and surface is defect free from what I can see. The signature is also crisp and not separating. Possible gem mint but wouldn't be disappointed with a mint grade.

With my track record with Allen and Ginter cards being graded I must be crazy to not just submit one but two more in this batch. Joe Mauer is one of the best hitting catchers I've seen. He is now a first baseman but the time he put behind the plate was excellent. Unlike the Braun card I do not see any centering issues and the corners are crisper than Braun's with no surface or edge issues to speak of. I really expect a "soft" gem mint grade here but gem mint nonetheless. Let's do this Beckett.

The last two cards are of Dodgers and really came down to preference on which received top billing. Black is more rare than blue but Urias has not performed at the big league level yet as Puig has. Both cards I believe are sure shots to be gem mint with the very small chance of one if not both getting a pristine grade of 10. I have never received a pristine and hopefully one day I will. Why not today? Urias's card is numbered out of 99 and looks to be perfectly centered and not a single flaw to my eye. We shall see what it comes back as. Come on 10.

... and to finish of the submission we have Mr. wild horse himself, Yasiel Puig. His blue card is numbered out of 250 so it is more plentiful than Urias's 99 but Yasiel has proven himself so there is a higher demand for his cards. This card at one time was selling for over $100 and it dipped down quite a lot as I picked it for a little over $30 ( eBay bucks purchase, woo hoo ) but I have seen it selling again close to $100. Thought it was finally time to get this blue beauty graded.

So that is it. 5 cards with my finger crossed for 5 gem mint grades in return. Have to be realistic though. I believe 2 are locks with a 3rd being pretty damn close to that as well. 2 with outside shots. We shall see in a week or so as results will be posted give or take on the 18th with cards back in hand on the 21st. Wish me luck everyone.

Card of the Day - 2012 Allen and Ginter : Ryan Braun Mini Framed Autograph Red Ink Variant ( 9 / 10 )

Buy low sell high.
That is the ultimate way on how to make some money while still acquiring wants and needs in this hobby.

A lot has been said about Ryan and his "supposed" steroid consumption. It is what it is and I have moved on from it due to that fact that yes he probably was on it but so were a lot of other players including Dodgers. My problem with Ryan was the way he went about himself and denying and hurting other people's lives. Hopefully he has learned a lesson and continue on what was a very good career prior to his suspension. That said I still wanted his on card autograph.

I bought a PSA ball late last year ( never profiled here as it's turn in the que never came up ) but it was part of the ball purge that I am in right now. Surprisingly the ball sold for more than I paid for it. Now I was on the hunt for an on card autograph as he was on my need to reacquire list. Enter Allen and Ginter cards.

I saw this beauty and while the normal one aka non red version books for $100 there is no book on this one due to its scarcity. I would say its safe to assume that in his good days that it probably would sell for north of $200 since there are only 10 copies. I have seen these red ink versions before but I have never been able to get one at a reasonable price. Well with Ryan on the not so popular list I picked this up for way less than the $100 that the non red ink one books for. A major score in my eyes.

These 2012 versions are the best with its black borders. Got rid of the ball and picked up this great looking low numbered card for almost the same price.

Nice, clean red autograph

9 of only 10 in the world. That is camera glare on top left hand side.